KEY POINTS:
The United States, the 27th ranked team on the International Hockey Federation's official list, have replaced Cuba as the sixth team at February's men's Olympic qualifying tournament at North Harbour.
The US will be the lowest-ranked of the six teams at the tournament from which the winner will gain automatic qualification for the Beijing Olympics.
New Zealand, ranked 10, will face their toughest pool game in the third round when they meet world No 7 Argentina. The top two teams after five pool matches at the Crown Relocations Stadium-based tournament will go through to the must-win final on February 10. The other teams (with their current rankings in brackets) are France (16), Ireland (19) and Trinidad and Tobago (23).
Meanwhile, there have been late changes to the men's Black Sticks for their three-match series with world No 1 Australia in Sydney. The Canterbury duo of Nick Haig and Andy Hayward have been recalled to international duty following the injury-enforced withdrawals of Canterbury defender Hayden Shaw and North Harbour midfielder Ben Collier.
The matches will be played today, on Friday and Sunday.
* Black Sticks: Bryce Collins, Steve Edwards, Blair Hopping, Dave Kosoof (North Harbour), Ryan Archibald, Gareth Brooks, Simon Child, Dean Couzins, Bevan Hari, Paul Woolford, James Nation (Auckland), Casey Henwood, Lloyd Stephenson, Richard Petherick (Midlands), Phil Burrows, Kyle Pontifex (Wellington), Nick Haig, Andy Hayward (Canterbury).
